Chairs of Bisbee Finale

The Chairs of Bisbee ended on Sunday evening. The chairs were all on display, outside in a backyard and along a porch of one of the homes that was part of the Bisbee Home Tour, also going on at the same time.

Unfortunately I had blown my chance earlier in the week to photograph more of the chairs when they were on display downtown, but I still had a slim hope that I could do it at the auction. It was a bit too crowded and I was a bit too self-conscious, so no more pictures were taken by me. I promise to do better next year!

The final tally on chairs was 34, I believe, which included a few entries that were not EXACTLY chairs. I don't know the final accounting, but it seemed that every chair (or nearly so) had sold. I know there were a couple of chairs in the $300.00 range, but most sold from $5.00 - $100.00 or so.

Mine both sold for $25.00 each.

I learned a lot, had fun and thankfully didn't have to bring the chairs home, as I have not an inch of extra space for them in my little house!! There were some familiar names on the bid sheets, but the woman that bought both of mine was unfamiliar to me. But I would like to thank her!!

And, as a result of the Chairs of Bisbee, I will be joining the Bisbee Women's Club, so stayed tuned for more adventures!

Ain't Gonna Shop at the Mall No More

Actually I haven't shopped at the mall in years. But, I like to remind myself on or around Thanksgiving that there are alternatives. To those of you who may be new to the concept of MALL AVOIDANCE, let me offer some suggestions.

Of course I will invite you to shop at any of my sales venues...my Cafe Press store and my two etsy shops: dolladay and ladyartichokeheart . There is also the option of shopping at Amazon dot com (enter Amazon through my homepage and I make a percentage of your purchase. See previous post for further details.)

If you are interested in shopping for handcrafted items etsy is a great possibility. And, you can also check out the etsy street team that I belong to: Visual Artists Street Team (VAST) a coalition of multi-media artists. You can also find some wonderful handcrafted items at eBay.

Shop in your pajamas. Shop any hour of the day or night. Don't fight the traffic, the parking lots, the other unhappy mall shoppers. Find wonderful handcrafted, artistic and one of a kind items for your wonderful one of a kind friends. Say yes to MALL AVOIDANCE. Say yes to a more relaxed holiday season. Shop online. Shop handcrafted. Be a patron of the arts!

...Ain't Gonna Shop at the Mall No More

Why I Am an Amazon dot Com Affiliate

Some artists have tip jars or donation buttons on their blogs. (Art supplies are not cheap!) I have absolutely no problem with that, and if they get donations or tips...excellent...and if you make a donation or leave a tip you can feel the satisfaction of being a patron of the arts and that is great too.

I have chosen not to do that, but if you would like to support this artist, and you buy things from Amazon dot com anyway...you can be a patron of the arts and it won't cost you a dime.

If you go to my homepage and scroll down to the bottom you will see an Amazon search box. If you enter Amazon there, it should not affect your Amazon experience in any way, and I will get 4% of your purchase amount.

I also often report on what I have been watching or reading, and I always have an Amazon link associated with those posts. Again, you should be able to access Amazon there and you can check out that listing and then move on in Amazon dot com land...where, again, I will get 4% of your purchases.

Be a patron of the arts!!

Project Belly Dancer Part 2

Just a couple more Belly Dancers. I am taking them on the road with me tomorrow morning. I like these even better than the first ones I did. I still have four more in progress, but I am not sure if I will finish them, in light of everything I need to do in the next 18 hours.

At any rate, Belly Dancers will soon be available at my DollADay etsy shop.

Project Belly Dancer

My mission for the early part of this week is to create Belly Dancer Dolls. I know something about making dolls, but I confess to knowing absolutely nothing about Belly Dancers!





So I set forth with some of the basics. I know you have to see the belly buttons!! I also know that bra tops are pretty common. I know very little about the make-up, so I am faking that as I go along. (After all, my other dolls are not exactly realistic, and I am trying to suggest Belly Dancers, not be Belly Dancers.)





I know it is about the BLING, so I have used metalic colors like gold, silver and bronze. I have used beads that shimmer and change as they move. That has also been fun, as I usually have to subdue my urge to put glitter on everything!






I am having a blast doing them. Especially since when I get to the place where I would normally stop on one of my dolls...I just keep going and add more BLING.


I have three nearly finished (the ones shown here) and I have 6 more in the works.

I just watched...

Practical Magic



In my opinion it was not as good as the book, but it did have a great cast and was fun to watch. And, as my friends in the altered book world pointed out...they have a great altered book where they look up spells and such. Great fun.

I am a huge Alice Hoffman fan and recommend all of her books.

Chairs of Bisbee Part 7

Today's the day. Tonight's the night. The opening reception for the Chairs of Bisbee Project is tonight at 7:00 p.m. I have never done anything like this and I am as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof!

For some reason, I decided early on that I would make two chairs. The WILD ZEBRA was clear in my mind from the very beginning. The other chair, however has been more of a struggle for me. I knew I wanted it to represent the beach and I have thought of it as the BEACH CHAIR or the MERMAID CHAIR.
Unfortunately, if I made the MERMAID CHAIR as I envisioned it, no one would ever be able to sit in it. I wanted it to be encrusted with shells. I wanted it to be very over the top with shells. But practicality won out, and I had to keep the number of shells to a minimum. I started by painting the legs a sand color, the seat a water color and the back the color of the inside of a shell. That part was relatively easy.
Then I started attaching the shells. I had glue issues. I have a lot of glue issues in my work. I ended up using 4 different types of glue. I had issues with all of them.
When I woke up this morning, the chair was sand,sea and shell colored, with some shells stuck on the top and sides. I knew right away I needed some BLING. So...I got out the glitter...voila...what a difference it made! So, it is 10:30 a.m. and the glitter and dimensional paint are still drying. I still have a few ideas, but it needs to be polyurethaned and dry by 6:00 p.m. so we will see....